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Orban's Appetite for Control

Hungary's Prime Minister is nudging the country toward one-party control.

Updated Jan. 7, 2011 12:01 a.m. ET

The Hungarian government's recent move to restrict media freedom in the country is just the latest in a string of worrying signs from Budapest. The law, passed just before Christmas, gives a media-regulatory body stacked with Prime Minister Viktor Orban's fellow party members broad powers to ensure "balance" in coverage of Hungary by both domestic and foreign media outlets. It also, reportedly, requires that bloggers register with the government.